FREEDOM NOW June 12, 2020

Today marks the 122^nd year the modern Philippine flag was hoisted at General Emilio Aguinaldo’s house in Kawit, Cavite. And this day, a regular holiday, is officially called the Philippine Independence Day.

However, observing people throughout the day, reading what some said, hearing what a few others said they understand about it, makes me feel a bit sad, because it seems different people have different understanding of what independence is, and unfortunately they confuse the word with freedom.  The two things are essentially different.

Merriam-Webster said that freedom is the absence of necessity or liberation from coercion of choice or action.  It means therefore, a state of being.  A person is free when he is not hindered or burdened by things or connections or forces that disable him from being and doing what he feels he must do, or from becoming better and best at what he must be.  Independence on the other hand, means that a person, because he is not bound or controlled by another, has the capacity and competence to do what he feels must be done.  So while freedom is a state of being, independence is a product of choice, and it leads to an action.

One paper columnist said that freedom should mean freedom from fear, uncertainty, poverty and want.  Another said we can only be independent if we can govern ourselves free from the dictates of other powerful nations, or strong business interests.

The Word today in Hosea 11 says something thought-provoking about what it means to be free and independent.  Verse 4 says that GOD takes the yoke from His people’s jaws, meaning that unlike beasts of burden, He gives them freedom from being controlled what or when to say and eat.  But He leads them and provides meat for them.  We have a GOD who gives us freedom, and while we always depend on Him for our daily sustenance, we are free from the burden of striving and struggling in this world on our own.

Why does it seem like GOD is controlling us when He says we have freedom, and the choice and chance to be independent?  I realize that maybe this is because as fallible as we are, we could never fully know and understand everything.  And if we give in to the lies of the enemy, like many, we tend to get confused where our freedom (of speech, thought, and action) begins and ends, and where that of the other person begins and ends too.  We need Someone to show us the truth and to guide us: One who knows from beginning to end, One who is timeless and ageless, One who has the highest view.

And that I think is what freedom and independence means now—we have the freedom to choose, unconfused by lies and biases, unhindered by our own incapacities and inadequacies—to surrender our lives to Him and let Him lead us through life.  For only when we are not burdened by the past we cannot undo and the future which we can never yet know, one that we cannot fully prepare for with absolute certainty, can we live with joy in the here and now, and yet still not lose our hope that there awaits for us a greater eternity.